Franchitti resists Power at Mid-Ohio

Helio Castroneves completed the podium, while Alex Tagliani led for much of the race thanks to a handy pit call, but ultimately had to settle for fourth for rookie squad Fazzt.

Polesitter Power had led at first for Penske, while third-place qualifier Takuma Sato (KV) briefly got ahead of Franchitti (Ganassi) for second before being re-passed a few laps later.

Having qualified back in 14th, Tagliani went out of sequence on pitstops, and his slightly early stop was then followed almost immediately by a full course yellow caused by KV's EJ Viso and Dreyer & Reinbold's Justin Wilson colliding while fighting over ninth place.

With everyone else pitting under the caution, Tagliani was able to cruise to the front of the queue behind the pace car, followed by Tony Kanaan - who had pitted much earlier having qualified down the order and gone off the road on the opening lap.

Just behind them, Franchitti got out ahead of Power, while Castroneves and team-mate Ryan Briscoe were able to continue in the lead pack despite three-way contact in the pits involving them and Andretti Autosport's Ryan Hunter-Reay, who had to pit again for repairs.

Kanaan had made his first stop too early to go the distance on just one more pit visit, but Tagliani was in great shape - confidently leading ahead of Franchitti and now on the same pit strategy as the other leaders.

But the Canadian did not manage to stay ahead through the final pit sequence, his slightly earlier stop seeing him fall behind Franchitti, Power and Castroneves, where he would remain.

That left Franchitti to resist everything Power could throw at him over the final laps to secure the win by a slender 0.5234 seconds.

Castroneves came home just ahead of Tagliani, Scott Dixon (Ganassi), Briscoe and late-charger Raphael Matos (De Ferran Dragon). HVM driver Simona de Silvestro had looked a likely top six contender for a while before fading to eighth - still a career-best - in the final stint.

Andretti's Marco Andretti took ninth, while the recovering Hunter-Reay edged Bertrand Baguette (Conquest) out of 10th in the closing laps.

Sato's superb weekend ended when he crashed at a restart while recovering from a slow pitstop.

Debutant JR Hildebrand was 16th for Dreyer & Reinbold in the end, escaping unscathed from a tangle that ended Sarah Fisher Racing driver Jay Howard's afternoon.

Pos  Driver               Team                    Time/Gap
 1.  Dario Franchitti     Ganassi            1h54m32.2568s
 2.  Will Power           Penske                 + 0.5234s
 3.  Helio Castroneves    Penske                 + 4.0883s
 4.  Alex Tagliani        Fazzt                  + 5.6423s
 5.  Scott Dixon          Ganassi                + 5.9150s
 6.  Ryan Briscoe         Penske                 + 6.5100s
 7.  Raphael Matos        De Ferran Dragon       + 6.7518s
 8.  Simona de Silvestro  HVM                   + 10.1451s
 9.  Marco Andretti       Andretti              + 10.9555s
10.  Ryan Hunter-Reay     Andretti              + 13.2344s
11.  Bertrand Baguette    Conquest              + 14.8260s
12.  Mario Moraes         KV                    + 16.0461s
13.  Alex Lloyd           Dale Coyne            + 16.5570s
14.  Dan Wheldon          Panther               + 19.3518s
15.  Vitor Meira          Foyt                  + 20.0782s
16.  JR Hildebrand        Dreyer & Reinbold     + 20.2169s
17.  Tony Kanaan          Andretti              + 25.4286s
18.  Hideki Mutoh         Newman/Haas           + 26.5918s
19.  Adam Carroll         Andretti              + 27.3302s
20.  Graham Rahal         Newman/Haas           + 27.6341s
21.  Danica Patrick       Andretti              + 28.2099s
22.  Francesco Dracone    Conquest                + 3 laps
23.  Milka Duno           Dale Coyne              + 4 laps

Retirements:

     Jay Howard           Sarah Fisher       38 laps
     Takuma Sato          KV                 28 laps
     EJ Viso              KV                 22 laps
     Justin Wilson        Dreyer & Reinbold  22 laps